Wednesday, October 12, 2005

William is out today. Today's guest Blogger is, The One, The Only, The most Beautiful woman in the world and the best wife a guy could have. LAUREN

Is Dis...... DA??

As any parent knows, a toddlers many developmental milestones are a source for extreme joy, endless frustration, and at times, downright terror. Maxfield is certainly no exception to this rule (although, at times it seems he has more than his fair share in the terror department). Everyday, he is learning new things, new phrases, new ways to move his body, new PLAYTHINGS on his body. And having a grand ol' time exploring it all. However, for the past six months or so, he has been plagued by the same eternal question:

"Is dis... da?"

Now I ask myself, how is it that a 19 month old child can learn in a few short minutes, "What does an owl say?" "Hoo, hoo", he responds with amazing clarity. I, however, after six months, am still perplexed by the ever ambiguous, "Is dis...da?"

I wrack my brain with the details of this little phrase, searching for clues into the psyche of my child. When does he say it? What is he doing when he says it? What does it sound like he could be saying? The truth is, he could be doing anything when he says it. There is no recognizable correlation between events/activities and said phrase. This morning, he picked up my checkbook while I was doing the bills, handed it to me, and said, "Is dis da?" Then, only a few short minutes later, while captivated by Elmo, he pronounced, "Is dis..... DAAAA!!!"

Now, there is the occasional variation, "Is dis... dis?", "Is dis... da, da, da,da?", but nothing that gives any more insight into this mystery question. Obviously, he is trying to communicate, but what is he saying? I have laid in bed many a night pondering possible translations:

"Is this dad?", "Is fish dead?","Juice the dog?" Maybe we will never know, but in the meantime, I'm sticking with my favorite, "Is this love?

20 comments:

(Lois waves crazy like to Lauren!) "Is Dis.....DA?" I think he is asking "What is that?" My son said the same. I think he did it because every time he picked something up, I would ask, "What is that?" It seemed to me he was trying to say the same back to me. My best friend's son used to say "Oh! Bee-da-da!" It took forever but we found out that was his was of being excited to hear or see a motorcycle in the distance. Kids are weird. :)Lois Lane

Hi Lauren! I gotta go with "What is that/this? My kids had some thing they said like that when they were little I can't remember what it was now...wish I had written these things down. Anyway, finally figured it was What is that because that's what I always said to them. Stacieoh no...another long alphabet code..I always scramble them worse than they already are....sigh..

Hi Lauren...I have an 18 month old and all she ever says is Baby and Ohhhhhhh Woooooooowwwwww....I was waiting for my car to get fixed yesterday and a mother had her 2 year old son there who knew all his shapes, colors... so on. I felt like my daughter was a monkey next to him...LOL All I kept saying to myself was" Ohhhh woooooowwwww" Guess, I know where she gets it from....

Liam is only 13 months but he is starting to add words now. However - the words all sound the same. Daisy sounds like doggie sounds like daddy. Nana sounds like the way he says "Lily" - Nin-nay. His favorite is still "ba" everything is "ba" he said it a thousand times in the car today and I'm wracking my brain.. ba=tree? ba=car? ba=water? I'll never know....

Yeah we got the same issues here. Our son is learning three lanugages at once so it's all kind of a mess right now since he's only 19 months old. But he keeps pointing to things and saying "Den!!" All the time. And the phrase "Oj, Oj, Oj!" keeps coming up many times a day. That kind of means "ooops" in Swedish. He must have learned that from us. Probably my frustrations over seeing wife drop things in the kitchen..

Kids get so frustrated when we repeat back, what we think they are saying, but it's no where what they mean....and isn't it funny how we encourage them to talk when they are little, and then when they get older, we wish we could turn them off....lol....we use to call my daughter motor mouth...when she was little.... and I agree I think Max is saying What is this, or that.....I had a friend whose son use to ask for "Peel it", she finally figured out he was asking for an apple...because she would always say, do you want me to peel it? And my son use to ask for "generation", we finally figured out he was asking for Pepsi....you know "It's a pepsi generation" that was a big add on tv at the time.....Great Post.....

LOL -- Our 22 month old just started having "conversations" with us. Up until now, it's been random babbling (to us, I guess), but now you can tell he is REALLY saying something. The trouble is what? What on Earth is he saying? Whatever it is, though, he really means it...

Ooh, let me try. I think he's trying to be helpful, finding what you or Elmo were looking for, or wondering about: say, e.g., you murmered, "Hmmm, where's my checkbook?" It may be minutes later, but he still remembers and thinks, "Aha! Here it is!" and he asks, "Is this it?" (Is this dat thing you were looking for?) Yea, that's the ticket.

I had no Idea my wife was posting on Poop and Boogies... I mean it did say The most Beautiful women in the world and the best wife a guy could have? right? although i'm not sure why she would sign it Lauren....

She must of used an anonymous name.. thats it... cause she would never give out her real name... would she?

For the longest time The Duckling walked around saying "tits, tits, tits." Since I'm not a stripper and we usually don't watch porn in her presence I was pretty sure that wasn't the word she was trying to say.

Finally one day she was placing the beloved Cashew (her teddy bear) in a chair saying, "tits"...it hit me..."SIT!"

Woohoo! Another spouse willing to take up blogging for their so. How cool is that! Howdy Lauren. I keep stopping by cause your hubby has such cool family stories. My hub is one of 10 so I can just relate so well. Keeps me smiling. Nice of you to let him share. :)

You son sounds so cute. I miss having one that age. My youngest (of four) is 4 now. Sniffles. I wish I could have more but she was 10 weeks early, and they promised another early one. Sigh.